Tag Archives: The Fife Coastal Path

My first memories of Kinghorn were looking over the Braes down to Kinghorn Harbour.

The Village Show in August 2013, admiring the lengthy carrots and mouth watering scones and sponges, not to mention the vibrant village atmosphere, coincided with our second visit.

We also enjoyed a warm welcome at The Wee Shoppe, a place we still frequent for a cuppa, blether and an occasional toastie. Mind you, these resilient folks can sometimes be out in inclement weather and they’re still smiling 🙂

I have such happy memories of New Year’s Day when the hardy folks of Kinghorn go in for a dip at The Loony Dook in aid of The Lifeboats.

When the sun is shining down on this sheltered bay it is possible to bask in its warmth twelve months of the year, and we do!

Kinghorn became our temporary home for a year but we did not notice the gradual capturing of our hearts, even when there’s an icing sugar coating of snow which happens very rarely.

It took a wee while to realise that one day we would call Kinghorn our home.

As in many parts of Fife, the industries of Kinghorn are long gone ~ a tannery, linoleum manufacturer and boat builders to name but three. Today small businesses thrive and the High Street has a variety of busy shops including arts and crafts at The Sea Witch and The Dragon’s Den, a dressmakers and many cafes and pubs, including the recently reopened Harbour View. (Known locally as the Carousel due to connections with the fair ground trade I believe.) The Station Gallery is well worth a visit on a Saturday morning too. In fact, we are a creative lot here in Kinghorn. Look out for the ever popular Round the Horn where people open up their houses to show off their work.

(Author Diana Jackson enjoys researching social history and this inspires her writing. Her latest release ‘The Healing Paths of Fife’, a fantasy / memoir, reflects her growing love for the Kingdom of Fife.)

For each of my books I have written virtual tours of the places which have inspired me to write, and Fife is no exception. My tour will be in chronological order rather then geographical, as I discover, explore and come to love this region of the UK.

I will begin in Lower Largo.

I was visiting my husband one weekend. He was commuting from Bedfordshire to Dunfermline each week and so I flew up to join him.

On the Saturday we went for out a drive.

‘Let’s have a look down there,’ I said, when I noticed a ‘to the beach’ sign from the main road along the coast. It was time for coffee anyway. There we stumbled upon a magical place, reminiscent of Cornwall years ago, before the floods of tourists descended. It was early May in 2013.

We stood gazing along the beach for a while towards the peninsula, which pointed out towards North Berwick on the south coast of The Forth. Rocks and sand stretched for what appeared to be miles into the distance. Behind us was a small harbour, The Crusoe Inn Hotel and a viaduct which framed quaint cottages, like a backdrop for an Agatha Christie movie.

We breathed in deeply, hubby after a week’s rewarding but challenging work, and me after a stressful time at college and delayed flights the previous evening. A welcoming coffee at The Crusoe next revealed Lower Largo’s claim to fame as the birth place of the real Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk. Old ‘letters’ adorn the walls of the hotel and you can even ‘walk’ on a footprint of the man himself.

I was so charmed by all of this, my natural curiosity inspired, and thus I began my first research into the history of Fife, the Kingdom I now call home.

(Author Diana Jackson loves researching social history and this inspires her writing. Her latest release ‘The Healing Paths of Fife’, a fantasy / memoir, reflects her growing love for the Kingdom of Fife.)